Bill Rogers ran 6,159 miles in 1975... would an elite runner ballpark that into time on his feet?

For instance, Bill averaged 118 miles a week for the year. if he averaged a 6:30 pace, then he spent about 667 hours on his feet. If I spent 667 hours on my feet at an AVERAGE of an 8:30 pace over the course of a year, that would come out to 4709 miles... divide that by 52 weeks, and I would end up running right at 90 miles a week.

However, if he averaged 7:30/mile over the course of the year, then he would have spent 769 hours on his feet. If I averaged 8:30/mile for 769 hours over the course of a year, I would end up running closer to 108 miles/week.

I imagine that he spent a supermajority of his time at a low INTENSITY... just very curious what PACE your "average elite" runs once you AVERAGE all their races, speed work, long runs, and everything in between...

No idea but from his book it sounds like he just relaxed on easy runs until he was going pretty quick

RancidCupnooodle wrote:

No idea but from his book it sounds like he just relaxed on easy runs until he was going pretty quick

And yet there would still be an average...

Or, forget about Bill Rogers... what would you ballpark for the average pace over the course of a year for an elite athlete today?

6159 miles in a year

= 16.854 miles a day

@ 7:00 mile pace is 1 hour and 58 minutes a day

118 miles a week

agree on average he trained 2 hours a day

What Bill achieved is astounding, particularly considering some of the circumstances of his situation--working full-time or part-time for much of his career, not eating the best food, and racing nearly every weekend. Imagine how much better he would have been if he had the circumstances of today's runners? Of course, competition at the world level is greater today, but his own impressive list of sub-2:12 marathons would be even longer with better conditions, you have to figure.

My thoughts exactly, Fentrekker. Bill Rodgers is perhaps the best ever.